We talked with Cold War Kids about their latest album, Hold My Home. Check it out here.

Around the time of our first record, everyone was saying we were a blog band because that was the time when those dozen bands were coming up through that medium. I think we’re probably one of the only ones of those bands that’s still around, or at least active in any more visible level. Again, I think we’re pretty surprised by it, because we didn’t totally plan on it. For me, it’s about desire. If we still really want to do it full on and write, record and tour, then we have to be totally committed. I don’t think we could take a year off. We’re not that kind of band where we could just take a...

New Jersey hardcore band Heavy Chains have signed to Flatspot Records, and are set to record their debut EP in the fall, with a release date sometime in early 2016. You can check out the band this summer as they hit the road with Terror, Bane, Backtrack, and more on the "Life and Death" tour. Full-press release and tour dates can be found in the replies.

Billboard is reporting that Apple Music has signed up two of the larger independent digital rights conglomerates.

Apple Music, the hardware giant's soon-to-launch streaming service, has landed an eleventh-hour coup, striking deals with the independents’ digital rights organization Merlin and with Martin Mills’ indie powerhouse Beggars Group, sources tell Billboard. Label group PIAS has also announced it has signed on.

This song made my hair stand straight up (I am aware that it grows that way anyhow). "The Scope of All of This Rebuilding" is a harmony and eventually gang vocal masterpiece of power, which in moments drops down to just one singer and becomes compelling in a new way. I had a visceral reaction to this song. It's undeniable. I remember when I heard Saves the Day’s Can’t Slow Down, and I was like, well, I'm going to start this over and I'm going to listen again and again. It's that feeling. The structure of this one is inside out. I like that a lot. Like, when there's all...

The Fall of Troy are currently working on a new album, and will be heading out on tour this fall to play Doppelganger in its entirety. The band will then play a second set of rarities and some new songs. Dates can be seen here, and tickets go on sale this friday.

The Winter Brave gained attention back in 2013 when Dave Grohl mentioned the band during his Reddit AMA. Drawing influence from the likes of The Black Keys, Cage the Elephant and Silversun Pickups, Boston brothers are releasing a new EP, The Hand You Never Seem to Lend, on July 28th. We're streaming a track from the effort titled "Taken" in the replies. With Grohl's stamp of approval, how could you not take a listen?

Riot Fest Denver has also announced its second wave of bands. System of a Down is now headlining the festival, while Death Grips, The Prodigy, 88 Fingers Louie, and more have been announced. Check out the updated admat in the replies and get tickets here.

We spoke with X Ambassadors this week about their debut album VHS and their hit single "Renegades," currently the #1 Alternative song in the country. Check out the interview here.

Learn how to shut your ego out and make sure you’re not doing something out of sheer stubbornness and laziness. We made this record THREE times. That’s three almost entirely different records. Each time we thought it was done, and then we’d all come back to it and realize it wasn’t. It’s the hardest thing to start over again, but it will always be better a second time around.

I stopped playing music because I hated how dependent it made me on other people. My faith in what I was doing felt like a trapeze artist flailing from bar to bar, barely keeping in motion. I would sporadically meet amazing, naturally supportive people amongst the oceans of consumers and they would keep me going momentarily...only to inevitably be let down again at such an exponentially gargantuan rate that I would feel my personality change. I stopped playing music because I am a happy, extremely positive, and supportive person. I am back...and I buy music.